NVIDIA SHIELD hands-on with PlayStation console emulation

With NVIDIA SHIELD we've begun diving in to a collection of use-cases for the system that spin beyond its original two: Android gaming and PC game streaming. While we've given NVIDIA SHIELD a full review already, we've only just begun to explore the many use-cases for this device, considering especially its physical controls connected directly to Android and the top-level NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor found inside. Today we're having a look at game emulating, using the Android app FPse to play test a game in its original PlayStation form.

Fourteen years ago development group Neversoft created a skateboarding video game so addicting that the prevailing memory most users have of it was playing (and replaying) the demo disk delivered with gaming magazines for months before the final product was delivered. Fast forward to 2013 and Tony Hawk Pro Skater has delivered a collection of sequels and spin-offs for PlayStation (the original platform for this game), Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, N-Gage, and Game Boy Color.

Special Note: What you're seeing here is only available to those users who own an original physical disk iteration of Tony Hawk Pro Skater. If you do not, downloading and playing a game like this without paying for it is not strictly legal. Chris Burns - the author of this demonstration - has trashed two disks and owns a total of three copies of the game for the original PlayStation, just so you're aware.

What we're doing here is loading the app FPse from the Google Play app store. A simple search for "FPse for Android" will bring this app up and you'll have to lay down $3.63 to buy it. There are other PlayStation emulators (as well as emulators for a variety of non-Android gaming devices) to be had on Google Play in abundance as well - check em out if you dare.

From there we located a ROM of Tony Hawk Pro Skater. Doing that bit we'll have to leave to you. What you'll need is a .bin file and a .cue file, as both are needed to run the game. Both are generally included in a .zip file you download from a host of your choosing. Remember that you're doing all of this at your own risk, as the download won't be straight from Neversoft, NVIDIA, or any company associated with the two in-between.

Once you've got FPse and a PlayStation ROM, you're good to go!

We've chosen to make a couple of slight adjustments once in-game, those including the axing of the touch control overlay (we won't need them) and the switching of the controller to straight analog. Because FPse and NVIDIA SHIELD are able to see and acknowledge each other instantly, there's no keying-in of buttons to be done, it's all ready to go right from the start.

Easy stuff. And compared to the process necessary to do essentially the same thing back on the PlayStation phone, aka Sony XPERIA Play, SHIELD seems downright made for this sort of thing.